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George Stewart, 17, played the role of a concerned citizen after neighbor Paul Monchnik, 91, was found murdered Monday morning inside his burning northwest Detroit home.
Stewart told Fox 2 right after the murder that he was outside around 2 a.m. when he saw someone drive off with Monchnik's minivan. Monchnik was a retired TV repairman who lived in the northwest Detroit neighborhood about 50 years.
"I was on the phone with my girlfriend and I looked over and told my girl . . . 'he at it again, he about to go collect some TVs, but it’s 2 o' clock in the morning, what he doing up? And I just seen the person drive off with his car."
"Next thing you know, two minutes later, I walk in the house and we smell fire."
Paul Monchnik
But police have surveillance video showing Stewart pulling into a gas station to buy a container of gasoline.
Late Wednesday afternoon, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office charged Stewart in the murder.
"The word heinous does not even begin to describe this crime," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement.
Authorities allege that on Monday at 2:55 a.m. Detroit Police and firefighters were called to put out a fire at Monchnik's home in the 20500 block of Bentler in Detroit.
They discovered discovered the victim was severely burned all over his body and had suffered a head injury, the prosecutor's office said. Medics pronounced him dead at the scene.
Authorities charge that Stewart fatally assaulted Monchnik, and set his house on fire.
Stewart faces charges of first-degree murder, felony murder and arson. He's scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.
